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The Distinctly Competent District Councillor
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The Distinctly Competent District Councillor

By: Jonas Jonasson
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About this listen

The charming and original story of a small, declining community's struggle to survive in the shadow of the all-consuming metropolis, from the multi-million copy bestselling author of The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared.

All over the world, people sleep blissfully in cosiest of beds: Traumbett beds, made in Hamburg. They've successfully cornered the market everywhere except Sweden, which is why the new owner, Konrad Kaltenbacher Jr, is desperate to expand there.

Seeing an opportunity to attract 800 new jobs back to her small, decaying town of Halstaholm, new district councillor Julia Bäck jumps right into spearheading a persuasive campaign with an unprecedented charm offensive to win the contract over Stockholm. A roundabout is hastily renamed in honor of Angela Merkel and adorned with black, red, and gold flowers; a German school is quickly established under the leadership of three elderly pensioners; and the town swimming pool is rapidly transformed into a beerhouse – it had been empty for years anyway!

Julia's tenacity impresses the German dream bed boss Konrad Jr… but has she bitten off more than she can chew?

©2026 Jonas Jonasson (P)2026 HarperCollins Publishers Genre Fiction Literature & Fiction Political Satire Small Town & Rural

Critic Reviews

'A mordantly funny and loopily freewheeling debut novel about ageing disgracefully' Sunday Times

'Scandi-crime's signature darkness is here dispelled by Allan Karlsson, the eponymous centenarian, who with unlikely sprightliness hops out of the window of his old people's home one afternoon … Fast-moving and relentlessly sunny' Guardian

'Imaginative, laugh-out-loud … a brilliant satire on the foibles of mankind' Telegraph
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